


3S 



>^1^. f 1 tf A^ . ' Z*^ ^"y 



To the Voters of Rappahannock, Fauquier, Madison and Cul- 
pepper Counties, composing the Seventeenth Senatorial District 
of Virginia, as appointed by the Constitution adopted in 
Alexandria, in the month of April, 1864. 

\ Fellow Citizens : — I am a candidate for your suffrages 

to represent you in the Senate of Virginia. It is known to 
' you that I held a seat in what is now called "the Rebel Leg- 
islature,^'' and it is generally believed that I am disqualified, 
(from that fact) by the Constitution, from holding a place in 
the next General Assembly of Virginia. I am satisfied 
that a closer reading of this Constitution will show this be- 
lief to be an error, and that, by every rule of interpretation, 
it was not the intention of the Convention thus to restrict 
the people in their choice of representation. 

I shall not now, in this place, argue this question of eligi- 
bility. It is not for the voters of the district to decide the 
point ; the Senate itself is made *'the judge of the election, 
qualification, and returns of its own members,'''' by the 9th 
Section of the fourth Article of the Constitution. I have, 
however, appended hereto my argument to show my eligi- 
bility to a seat in the Senate, if elected by your votes (see 
appendix A) ; and I think the reasoning of that paper will 
satisfy the judgment of all fair-minded men. 

The Scope of the Addkess, 

I have much to say to you, fellow citizens, touching the 
sad condition of our country, and in explanation of the 
rights and duties of our people. It is appropriate to the 
present occasion, when you are about to choose your politi- 
cal representation, that the candidate for your favor should 
freely discuss the fundamental principles of our system of 
State and Federal Governments, and should fearlessly point 
out to you, wherein our present rulers have recklessly trod- 
den under foot the muniments of our popular freedom. 
This should be done, however, in no spirit of factious oppo- 
sition, and certainly in no purpose of seditious resistance, 
calculated to arouse you to the assertion of your rights by 
a resort to arms. The common sense of every one, in pres- 
ence of the terrible experience of the late war, forbids all 



thoiight and all hope of redress from any military force we 
could command. I shall confine myself, therefore, to the 
simple rask of marking the departures of our government 
from its original forms and principles, that I may show what 
we have lost, and that you may clearly see the positions we 
have to struo-o-le for to re":ain and retrieve our freedom. 

It behooves us, fellow citizens, in this depressed condition 
of our affairs, that we should not only know where we are, 
but by force of what current we have drifted on such ruin ! 
We must calmly study the motives of the men who thus 
oppress us. We must look to the uttermost degradation to 
which they destine us, in the execution of their plans ; and 
finally, we must, in a cool, self-possession, measure their 
strength, and closely examine our own resources of defence. 
It is only thus that brave men should act in their adversity — 
they should never despair, but should ever look upwards to 
the recovery of their liberties. 

The Political condition of the Southern States. 

Then, fellow citizens, what is the present political condi- 
tion of Virginia, and of all the Slave States of the Union? 
It is a sad truth, that the very forms of our own State gov- 
ernment have been rudely set aside, and that our substituted 
government has been made to serve only as an instrument 
of insult and mockery upon our people.* A Constitution, 
framed and prepared by some thirteen unknown men in Al- 
exandria, which repealed the Constitution ordained by the 
solemn acts of our own people, has been force! upon our 
acceptance, and we, nominally, live under its dispensations. 
I say nominally, because we all know that the military 
power of the Federal Government is the supreme power in 
actual possession of our State. 

*The municipal elections of Richmond, held in accordance with the new 
Constitution, weie set aside in presence of our Governor, by order of the 
military commander, to whom the popular choice was objectionable. When 
the City (^ouncil assembled to organize the city government, by qualifying 
the members elect, a United States officer appeared and forbade the quali- 
fication of all the officers elected, except one. The laws appointed the 
manner and the tribunal to judge of the qualifications of civil officers ; but 
the laws were set aside, and that jurisdiction was assumed by the com- 
mandant of the military district. 

It was supposed tliat a new election would be ordered ; and then was 
presented the most abject and humiliating spectacle ever before witnessed 
in Virginia. A committee of Virginia citizens waited upon this military 
viceroy, with a list of names, to know whether they would be agreeable 
to his fastidious tastes I ! ! 



The liberty of the press, and rights of free speech in the 
discussion of our highest interests, have been peremptorily 
forbidden in the Southern States.* 

The Southern States have been partitioned off into large 
military districts or provinces, and military viceroys have 
been appointed over their people. The forms of the Turkish 
Government have been practically extended over them. In 
the presence of these military satraps, their State laws are 
hushed, and new jurisdictions are to be im.posed upon their 
people within their States. The complaints of their people 
are to be heard before provost marshals, or appointees of 
the " Freedmari' s Bureau,''^ who sit like a Turkish cadi, to 
administer justice at his sound discretion, and not under any 
written laws. 

I cannot give you, my countrymen, a conception of the 
absolute subordination of State laws and of the self-srovern- 
ment of the Southern people, within their own States, to 
Federal power, in any form of words better than by placing 
before you the following pronunciamento of the viceroy, or 
Grand Pacha of the States of Louisiana and Texas, issued 
from "Headquarters," department of Louisiana and Texas : 

State of Louisiana, Executive Department, ) 
New Oeleans, Aug. 2, 1865. ) 

The annexed communication, received by me from Major-General, F. R. 
S. Canby, commanding Department of Louisiana and Texas, is published 
for your information and guidance. The rules therein laid down will be 
strictly followed. 

J. MADISON WELLS, 

Governor of Louisiana. 



Headquabtbes Dep't of Louisiana anp Texas, ) 
New Orleans, La., July 29, 1865. ) 

To his Excellency the Governor of Louisiana, New Orleans, La.: 

Sir: — I have the honor to invite your consideration to the action that 
has been taken by some of the local authorities in relation to the colored 



*The papers of the South are published only by gracious permits of 
the viceroys over the military districts. Robert Ridgeway, editor of the 
Richmond Whig, in the first issue of his paper discussed with manly free- 
dom the justice, the necessity, and the policy of certain laws passed by 
the Congress i.f the United fc>tates, which he argued were insulting and 
oppressive to the people of the Southern States. Forthwith, a provost 
guard was stationed at his office, and his further issue was forbidden!! 

The publication of the Whig was afterwards resumed. What conces- 
sions were exacted, or what terms were imposed, I have not seen. But 
this I have observed, that the Whig, like all the other Richmond papers, 
inculcates the lessons of quiet subserviency, and to consult the pleasure 
of the men who are appointed to rule over us It! 



population of this State, which is likely to result in evil if not promptly 
and properly corrected. 

The act of Congress approved March 2, 1865, creating a Bureau of Refu- 
gees, Freedraen, and Abandoned Lands, commits to the War Department 
the "control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from rebel 
States, or from any district of country embraced in the operations of the 
army." This control is exercised tlirough the Bureau of Freedmen, 
"under such rules and regulations as maybe prescribeil by the head of 
the Bureau, and approved by the President." 

No general order has yet been issued upon this subject, because the ma- 
chinery of the bureau has not yet been completed and extended to all parts 
of ths State; but as some instmces of contlict of authority have already 
arisen from ignorance of the law, or from a disposition of the local autho- 
rities to revert to laws and police regulations abrogated by the President's 
proclamation of January 1, 1863, or in the excepted parishes in this State 
by the constitution of July 24, 1864, I have the honor to request that you 
■will cause the city, town and parish authorities to be furnished with copies 
of this law, and advise them that the attempt to enforce police laws or 
regulations that discriminate against the negroes by reason of color, or 
their former condition of slavery, or that contiict with the regulations es- 
tablished by the Bureau of Freedmen, will not be permitted. The juris- 
diction in all such cases belongs to the United States, and will not be com- 
mitted to the local courts. 

The cases of vagrant and idle negroes come especially under the control 
of the agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, and all negroes arrested for these 
causes, who are not charged with any other crime, should at once be 
turned over to the agent of that liureau. 

I have no doubt as to the complete efficiency of the regulations of this 
bureau for the control of their subjects, but simply good faith to the 
Government requires that not only the State authorities, but the citizens 
of the State, should give their efficient co-operation and aid in carrying 
out the policy of the Government. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 

E. R. S. CANBY, 
Major- General Commanding. 

In Virginia, this new tribunal has also asserted the su- 
premacy of its legislative and judicial functions over all 
State laws and State courts. In the satrapy of Alexandria, 
the head of the Freedman's Bureau, understanding that the 
Virginia courts, in obedience to the established laws of the 
State, refusea to allow negroes to testify in cases before them, 
issued his edict and assumed jurisdiction of all cases where 
negro testimony was thus rejected, and negroes were in- 
terested. 

In the State of Maryland, this eminent jurisdiction was 
asserted in a form so abhorent to ever}'- principle of indi- 
vidual right and property,that by some mysterious influence, 
the head of this bureau had to make a precipitate and un- 
graceful retreat from his first position. He had actually 
ordered, or " regulated,''^ from his sovereign department, that 



the super.inuated and the helpless negroes should be sup- 
ported by their former masters ; and in default, that their 
lands should be seized for the support of such negroes!! 

It is not exactly in the right place, but it should be some- 
where recorded of this new style of a ''free republic,'''' that 
when the above "regulation^'' of the Freedman's Bureau was 
republished in Savannah, the provost marshal there took 
armed possession of the publishing office, and stopped the 
further issue of the paper. Nor was the editor allowed to 
resume, until he had purged himself of all design to offend 
bis highness the head of the Freedman's Bureau, for whom 
he seems to have always entertained the highest possible 
personal respect ! ! ! 

I clip the following as also throwiag light upon the varied 
jurisdiction of this new tribunal : 

AN IMPORTANT ORDER FROM GENERAL STEEDMAN. 

New York, August 16. — The steamer Nevada, from Savannah on the 
12th instant, has arrived. 

Gen. Steedman has issued an order providing that, in the absence of 
the civil courts, and in localities where no agency of the Freedmen's Bu- 
reau is established, all questions of wages and debts between freedmen and 
the whites will be decided by the provost marshals. The contracts be- 
tween such parties will be adhered to, unless procured by fraud. 

Provision is also made for compensation to freedmen driven away by 
former owners after an engagement has been made : also where a freed- 
man has been maltr'-ated aud leaves his employment. Vagrauts and idlers 
are to be arrested and put to hard labor. Provost marshals shall collect 
all money found due to freedmen, and pay it over to them. Offices have • 
been opened in Savannah, Augusta, and other places, where ladies can 
have the amnesty oath administered to them. 

The Freedman's Bureau. 

The establishment of this Freedman's Bureau, un.ler 
charge of the War Department, is at once a most alarming 
and a most tyrannical exertion of despotic power. It ani- 
bilates all pretense of self-government in the Southern States, 
and affirms a primary and substantive control over the per- 
sons, the contracts, the intercourse, and the property of the 
citizens of the Southern States, wherever the rights or interests 
of the black man may be in any manner brought in question. 
It is governed not by laws enacted by Congress, or ^by the 
State Legislatures, but "hy such rules and regulations as the 
chief of the bureau may appoint, and the President may ap- 
prove HP'' These rules and regulations are paramount to 



6 

State laws and to State tribunals, and subordinate tbe State 
courts and all the civil jurisdiction of the States. We 
know not "what rules and regulations^'' it may appoint. 
It has already set aside our laws which reject the evidence 
of negroes; it may have its negro justices, and juries, and 
judges yet in store for us, as there are no limits to its powers, 
except its own discretion. 

Nor is it less formidable to our liberties from its agencies 
to execute its behests. This novel jurisdiction enforces its 
decrees, not by marshals, or sheriffs, or constables, but it 
sends its sergeant with armed soldiers to command obedi- 
ence. It exercises penal, as well as civil jurisdiction, and 
punishes not in manner prescribed by the laws, but in ac- 
cordance with its own capricious discretion.* 

This Freedman's Bureau, furthermore, has power to take 
possession of all abandoned lands in the Southern States, 
and hold them for the use of the negro. It is the sole judge 
of what are ■'abandoned''^ lands, and takes possession without 
any form of ejectment wherever it lists. Thus can the Uni- 
ted States become a vast land holder and farmer within the 
limits of the Southern States. 

Nor is the action and the authority of this Freedman's 
Bureau to be confined to the Southern States. It seems from 
the following, taken from a New York paper, that the bureau 
has power to form negro settlements in Free States also: 

SOUTHERN NEGROES SENT TO RHODE ISLAND. 

New York, August 16. — A party of thirty negroes from the South passed 
through the city to-day en route for Rhode Island, where homes have been 
provided for them by the Freedmen's Bureau. The Express says this is 
the second party of negroes sent to Rhode Island at the Government ex- 
pense. 

I suppose, of coure, the bureau retains its full jurisdiction 
over "ail subjects relating to freedmeri'^ wherever it may please 
the "head" to send them. In that event, we shall perhaps 
see the laws of Rhode Island subordinated to the "regula- 
tions " of this bureau ! ! ! 



*In Alexandria, arbitrary and novel punishments are inflicted on offend- 
ing citizens. The provost marshal orders them to be confined in a negro 
jail or pen, and there, at his discretion, a shower-bath of sixty pounds of 
water is poured upon them from a heighth of twelve or fifteen feet. Thia 
is repeated once a day during their confinement. 



Personal degeadation of Southern Citizens part of 
THE Programme. 

Not only have the self governments of the Southern States 
been thus overwhelmed, but, fellow' citizens, the ends and 
purposes of this faction which oppresses us, require that the 
high tone and the individual character of our citizens should 
likewise be abased and bedraggled in the dust. They have 
availed themselves of the pardoning power, trustfully reposd 
(for far other purposes) with the Federal Executive ; and 
have even muddled this fountain of mercy so as ihat its 
■waters flow upon our people in streams of anxiety and hu- 
miliation. Before conviction of crime, and without the form 
of an accusation, all the wealth of the Southern States is, as 
if with a drag net, convoked at Washington ; and there, one 
by one, each individual citizen is forced t j confess the polit- 
ical sins of his State, and in humble supplication to- pray 
for the exemption of his individual property from confisca- 
tion ! ! ! 

Why this Summary of Wrongs has been made. 

My countrymen, it is not without a motive that I thus 
sum up before you all this lengthy detail of your wrongs. 
I aim to impress upon your minds a full sense of the politi- 
cal status of the Southern people. I wish to make true ex- 
hibit of the political bearings of the whole country, and to 
show the wide departures we have made from every princi- 
ple of independent and self-governing States, united under 
one common federal government, of well-balanced and strictly 
limited powers, to which we all were born. I told you in 
the outset of this address, that it behooved us to know, not 
only where we are (politically), but to study well to learn 
by what current it has been that we have drifted upon this 
total wreck of State government, and this overthrow of the 
Federal Constitution. 

The facts I have here detailed abundantly show the po- 
litical condition of the Southern States, and what they have 
lost. Their equality of political rights in the sisterhood of 
States is gone — their rights of self-government within their 
own boundaries is gone — the right to administer justice 
among their own people, by officers of their own appoint- 
ment, is gone — the power to guard the property and the 
liberty of their own citizens is gone ; finally, in common 



8 

with all tbe States of the Unioo, they have lost that Federal 
government of limited, well-defined and well-balanced pow- 
ers, inherited from our fathers, and, in lien thereof, a central 
despotism, of unbalanced and unrestricted powers, has been 
imposed upon all the States of the Union, 

The Current on which we have been Drifted. 

T now proceed to the second branch of the task I have 
assumed upon myself I propose now to show by what 
current the Southern States, and in truth all the States, 
have been drifted upon this overthrow of their State and 
also of their Federal Governments. 

It requires but brief scrutiny of our history, even since 
the surrender of the Conl'ederate cause, to establish the point 
whence this baleful current cotnes. It is well known that 
the Federal Government, in all its departments, executive, 
legislative and judicial, iS' now in the hands of the Black 
Republican party. That party got possession of the Fede- 
ral Government (as I shall show you presently) not in fair 
and manly contest at the polls, with their principles avowed 
and written on their banners, but, harbouring the design of 
freeing the negroes of the Southei-n States, they carefully 
disguised this destructive purpose, and loudly proclaimed a 
strict adherence to the Constitution. Under these false 
piomises, and with the co-operative aid of Southern politi- 
cians, whose wish was to break up the Union, Mr. Lincoln 
was first elected to the Presidency. Once in possession of 
the Federal patronage, it was an easy matter with them to 
buy up majorities in the Free States, and thus control State 
governments of the Free States. 

During the continuance of the war, and whilst the South- 
ern States held out for a separate nationality, there could 
arise no party in the Free States to oppose the Republican 
party. Having command of the Union armies, and holding 
control of the policies of the government, this faction craftily 
ingrafted their emancipation plans upon the Union purposes 
of the Northern people. They persistently forced Federal 
armies to fight for abolition and the Union, or to abandon 
the struggle for the re-union of the States. Thus it has 
been that they have grown in their strength until their 
power has overshadowed the Free States, as with a dark 
pall of abolitionism, and has enabled them to wreck the Con- 
stitution of the Union itself. 



9 ♦ 

Centralization of power is the natural tendency of party- 
ism in all republican governments. Checks and balances, 
and Constitutional restrictions, have ^ver proved to be fee- 
ble barriers to the concerted will of all elements of a govern- 
ment, fused and coalesced in one action, under the talismanic 
influence of party. The Executive patronage of our govern- 
ment, in our past history, has always ministered to this 
centralizing result. Sometimes in our history, the President 
himself has been a man of strong will, as in case of Andrew 
Jackson, and then' the offices are bestowed to force his own 
policy of administration ; but generally, the Presidential in- 
cumbents have held the offices and the policies of the gov- 
ernment subject to the control of the facdon that elected 
him. 

This has been eminently the case since 1861. Neither 
Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Johnson have directed and controlled-the 
policy of the Federal Administration. The entire Federal 
Government, Executivejas well as Legislative, has been prac- 
tically in the hands of the Black Eepublican organization, 
and all its measures and policies have thus been dictated by 
an irresponsible oligarchy, unknown to the Constitution. 

Fellow-citizens, I have in this seeming digression answered 
the inquiry : ^'Whence does this current that sweeps over the; 
institutions of the country comeV I.repeat that it is of the 
first moment in our efforts to recover our lost freedom, that 
we should know by what power it has been that self-govern- 
ment amongst us has been stricken down. When we know 
our true enemy we can comprehend the motives for our op- 
pression, and judge how far and how long it will be contin- 
ued. 

President Johnson not the power to Redress our 
Wrongs. 

Fellow-citiziens, there should be no misapprehension 
amongst us on this point. We should distinctly understand 
that we have but one enemy, and that enemy is the Black 
Republican organization. President Johnson is not the 
power whence comes our wrongs, nor is he the power to 
which we must look for redress. He is a party man, and in 
his present position he is the creation of a party, with whose 
purposes he does not sincerely affiliate. But he owes his el- 
evation, and all of his political consequence, to that party. 

2 



10 

# 
It has been a connection of mutual necessity. They were 
forced to take a Southern man as Vice-President, to disguise 
the sectional nature of their organization — and they chose 
Mr. Johnson, because his position gave them the strongest 
hold upon his subserviency — no one will deny but that the 
result has Mell approved their sagacity. 

It is not from President Johnson, therefore, that we must 
hope for relief. Whether willingly or unwillingly (and it 
is immaterial to us which) he is now committed to their pol- 
icy, and is cut off from association with any other party that 
Tnay rise uj:) in the country to do battle with this radical organi- 
zation, he is now riveted to them in bonds of interest too 
strong to be loosened by any flattery or conciliation with 
which the Southern people may approach him. He is the 
chosen instrument, and thus far, with the single exception 
that he opposes negro suffrage, he has been the sharp instru- 
ment with which they have cut their way to their unlawful 
ends through the Constitution and laws of their country. 
Even on negro suffrage, he does but side with a probable 
majority of his adopted party. 

This is too important a point in my argument, however, to 
be hastily dismissed. I must illustrate the entire sway which 
this organization exercises over the policies of the Federal 
Government dan of the Presidency itself. I shall, in the il- 
lustration, at the same time, show what would have been the 
just and wise plan of reconstructing the Union. The right 
and the wrong, the constitutional and the unconstitutional, 
could not be placed in stronger contrast. The following in- 
cidents clearly show that a reconstruction of the Union un- 
der the Constitution of the United States is not the design 
of the Kepublican party — they also show that the Presiden- 
cy is not in the hands of the President. 

The following incidents I have from the lips of Judge 
Campbell, late a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, given to me a few hours after they occurred. Their 
important bearings entitle them to historic record in the 
annals of the times : 

Mr. Lincoln's Plan of Reconstructing the Union. 

On the evacuation of Richmond, and just before the sur- 
render of Generals Lee and Johnston, the then President, 
Mr. Lincoln, visited Richmond to form his own judgment 



11 

of things, and learn for himself the frame of popular opinion. 
He held council with many public men, and among them 
■with Judge Campbell. The interview with Campbell was 
brief, although of the gravest interest. The Judge opened 
to Mr. Lincoln the purpose which had lead him to seek the 
interview in a few plain and direct words.,, 

" Mr. Lincoln," he said, "my greater age gives me a claim 
to talk with you with the greater freedom on this occasion. 
I desire to speak now of the treatment you may have in store 
for the people of Virginia. ■ They have manifestly ceased 
their resistance, and in a brief space the surrender of Gene- 
rals Lee and Johnston must place all the Southern States un- 
der the like control of the Federal authorities. The war 
will then have closed, and all the States, accepting the result 
of successful force, must acquiesce in the restored authority 
of the Federal Union. 

" My purpose in this interview, Mr. Lincoln, is to speak 
on behalf of the people of Virginia. They were slow to join 
the Southern Confederacy, and only did so when they be- 
lieved that their domestic institutions, and their rights of 
self-government, were imperiled. In this they may have been 
in error, but of the sincerity of their belief, I assure you, 
there can be no question. They have fought gallantly ; and 
upon this high principle of self-defence, believing themselves 
justified in their resistance. I respectfully submit that such 
a people, when reduced to submission by superior numbers, 
should be treated with a generous consideration. They 
should not be unnecessarily abased and humiliated. Now 
that they are prepared to return their State to the lawful 
jurisdiction of the Federal Government, I ask for them that 
they be allowed to resume their former relations of duty m 
the Union, by their own agencies, and under their own ap- 
pointed forms of action. The Union will thus be restored 
with all the binding force of the popular will freely and 
formally ascertained. 

" Under the guidance of your councils, Mr. Lincoln, the 
United States Government has now fully vindicated its just 
powers over all the States of the Union. By firmness, per- 
severance, and energy, your greater resources and your 
greater nuinbers have given you the victory in this fearful 
struggle of the two sections. Allow me to remind you, that 
with all good men the moment of triumph is always a mo- 
ment of moderation. I now pray you to be content with 



12 

; r 

t"he lawful frviis of your success. Do not in tbe arrogance 
of victory deface and mutilate the structure of our freedom, 
to preserve which the sword of the nation has been entrusted 
in your keeping. Be satisfied to re-establish the Union of 
all the States under the Constitution of your country, and let 
that Constitution remain unbroken and unsullied by any 
violence of yours. Arrogance and assumption may con- 
strain a formal re-union of the Southern States under the 
Federal Government, but I assure you that kindness and 
generous forbearance will sooih the wounded pride of their 
people, and will alone cement that Union in the bonds of a 
grateful affection." 

The President was much impressed by this appeal, and 
replied to Judge Campbell, that his words were of such 
weight that he would not give to them a present answer, but 
would take them to his pillow and there give them his earn- 
est study. On the next day, and doubtless awakened to an 
elevated sense of duty by the wise suggestions of Judge 
Campbell, Mr. Lincoln yielded to the promptings of his 
(substantially) kind nature, and adopted and promulgated a 
plan of reconstruction, at once the most eificient and the 
most conformable with the genius of the American people. 

Having in view the single purpose of re establishing the 
authority of the Constitution, which was the only lawful 
purpose of the war, Mr. Lincoln, with a directness which did 
him honor, authorized General Weitzel, then acting as mili- 
tary Governor of Virginia, to invite the civil Governor, and 
the members of the Virginia Legislature to re-assemble in 
Bichmond, there to consider of the best and speediest mode ' 
by which Virginia could resume her former place under the 
jurisdiction of the United States. lie thus intended to re- 
store the Union by action of the people through their repre- 
sentatives, in a manner most consistent with the forms of re- 
publican government, and least repugnant and humiliating 
to the pride of our citizens. He wished in this manner to 
consummate the end of a re-union of the Southern States, 
and based his great purpose on the free consent of the South- 
ern people, given througli their representatives. 

Fellow-citizens, had this wise, just, constitutional, and 
kind policy of Mr. Lincoln been adhered to, the Union, 
based upon the formal assent of our people, given in con- 
vention, would ere this have been established. The great 
work of re-construction would have been effected in accor- 



13 

dance with the forms admitted to be essential to the preser- 
vation of repablican freedom. Peace and security, indivi- 
dual safety and quietude — -the repose of adjustment and settle- 
ment — would at this moment have rested upon our land, and 
the building up of their material welfare, under shelter of 
laws adopted by themselves, would now have been the sole 
care of the people of Virginia. The memory of Mr. Lin- 
coln, as a man virtuous to form, and brave to execute a 
high, patriotic, and lawful purpose, would at this day have 
been green in the hearts of our people. But (it is in sor- 
row that I record the fact) these great and good measures 
to which Mr. Lincoln had thus committed himself were 
rescinded and reversed as soon as he returned to Washing- 
ton. 

The narrative of these incidents would, however, be in- 
complete unless it embraced the full action of the Federal 
Government on the occasion. I should not otherwise illus- 
trate the point or moral result I design to deduce. Mr. 
Lincoln, it seems, had to report at AVashrngton to some 
power greater than his own, the policy he had thus initiated 
in Richmond, and the measures he had authorized. When 
lo ! that power — which, whatever it be, is certainly unknown 
to the Constitution — incontinently reversed his policy, and 
changed his whole programme of reconstruction. This was 
done too, abruptly, and without the least regard to his per- 
sonal respectability. 

His invitation to the Governor and State Legislature to 
re-assemble in Richmond was bluntly revoked, and what 
should have deeply wounded Mr. Lincoln's pride and sense of 
truth, the invitation itself was declared to be an un- 
authorized act of Genera] Weitzel, who was, in a few days 
thereafter, removed from his post. More than this, as if 
to make boastful exhibition of their paramount power over 
the Government, ^hese irresponsible influences, insolently 
directed, that if any members of the State Legislature had 
reached the city under the invitation of General Weitzel, 
they should be imprisonned, unless they left in twelve hjurs 
time ; and as a cap-stone of their indecency to poor Mr. 
Lincoln, they actually offered a reward of $25,000 for the 
apprehension and safe delivery of Governor Smith ! I ! 

It is impossible to look closely upon such facts, and not 
feel a conviction that there is a power elsewhere than in the 
Presidency, that has shaped and controlled the moat import- 
ant policies of the Federal Government. Here we see 



14 

President Lincoln anxious to consummate tine reconstruc- 
tion of the Union, in a manner direct and simple, and in 
accordance with his constitutional duties. His policy was 
one of conciliation, and kindness, and respect for the self- 
government of the Southern people. He found them con- 
tent to abandon the struggle for a separate nationality, and 
willing to return peacefully and gracefully to their duties in 
the Union. On his part, he was content, as President of the 
United States, to hail their return to duty without an 
exhibition of offensive and uncalled-for force. When, how- 
ever, he reported at Washington, this gentle and humane 
programme of action, the irresponsible powers there, of au- 
thority paramount to his Presidential power, rudely over- 
ruled him and proclaimed a policy of insulting force towards 
the Southern States. This unknown power, with ruffian 
hand, repulsed the advance of the South to a re-union un- 
der the Constitution, abolished their State governments, 
abrogated all civil jurisdiction, by depriving their people of 
the usual ministrations of justice, and thus left their citizens 
unguarded from crime. 

Now, can any one doubt that the better nature of Mr. Lin- 
coln revolted from this damnable outrage ! But he was pow- 
erless either to protect the laws and Constitution of his coun- 
try, or even to shield his own personal respectability in this 
conflict with his "familiar spirits,''^ in whose keeping he 
h9,d manifestly placed the powers of the Presidency. 

Fellow-citizens, I consider it to be a first step in the recove- 
ry of our liberty, that we should thoroughly comprehend the 
true source of our oppression. I have before told you there 
should be no mistake on this important point. We must 
know our true adversaries, and with a cool judgment We 
must measure their full powers of mischief. From such 
facts as are above detailed we may safely conclude that Mr. 
Lincoln did not himself perpetrate that great crime upon 
republican government. It was manifestly the well-consid- 
ered work of an organization stronger than the Presidency, 
and, whilst allowed to wield the name and influencies of the 
President, too strong for the Constitution and the laws of 
their country. 

The People of the Free States Should Awake to the 
Changes of their Government. 
But it is of equal importance to the people of the Free 
States, as to ourselves, that they also. should realize this sub- 



15 

version of our whole system of State and Federal govern- 
ment, whicli the Black Eepublican party have effected. 
The people of the Free States must be made to comprehend 
that the Presidential of&ce, since March, 1861, and at this 
time, under Andrew Johnson, has been abandoned to the 
control of this organization. That Mr. Johnson is not now, 
nor if re-elected will he be, the de facto President, but that 
he is the locum tenens only of the office, and that every prin- 
cipal policy of the Federal Government is to be ordained 
and administered in his name, but under their paramount 
authority. 1 will make exception of negro suffrage, which 
the most crazy among them only would enact. 

When our people, whether North or South, fully compre- 
hend the magnitude and scope of this conspiracy against the 
very frame-work of oui; cherished system of self-governing 
States, there need be no fear of their decision. The correc- 
tive is in their own hands, and of a surety will be applied. 
Never on earth will the American people allow the whole 
structure of their own liberties to be overthrown, that an 
impractical and vicious freedom, unsuited to their physical 
or moral nature, may be by a never-ending force secured to 
the negro race. 

Examples oi? Black Eepublican Ccxntrol of the Gov- 
ernment. 

Fellow-citizens : I could multiply these evidences of the 
absolute sway over the policies of the nation, exercised by 
the Black Republican organization. Nor will it be without 
its profit in this argument that I briefly refer to some of the 
most prominent occasions on which this evil influence has 
shaped the destinies of the nation in opposition to the better 
motives of the President. 

The war itself was the policy of that party, and never 
would have been except that through war and bloodshed 
they saw their best opportunities. of forceful emancipation. 
Mr. Lincoln was opposed to taking the great first step, the 
reinforcement of Fort Sumter, great in its wickedness, 
which led to war. You all remember his quaint but home- 
ly expressions: "/ shall run the machine as I found it ;^'' 
and again : " / wont hit them if they don't hit me ; " and even 
in his inaugural of March, 1861, he proclaimed his purpose 
of being controlled by Congress, the only war power of the 
Constitution. His language there was, that he would occu- 



16 

py and possess the property of the United States wherever 
located, " provided his masLers, the American people, (meaning 
Congress,) loould furnish the mtans.'''' 

Notwithstanding his opposition, however, a meeting of 
the Abolition Governors of the Free States in Washington 
ordained a war policy, and provisions were sent to Fort 
Sumter, for the purpose, as Mr. Seward has since boasted, 
of compelling "the rebels" to fire on " tlie Jiag,''^ and open 
up a flagrant war. Mr. Lincoln woi^ld have trusted, to the 
conservatism of time— the delay of a few months ! ! He 
thought that approaching elections at the South would have 
overwhelmed the revolutionists and brought the seceded 
States back peacefully to their duties. Such a result would 
not however have effected the ends of emancipation, and the 
fatal policy of war Was forced upon the country. 

Again : Mr. Lincoln was petitioned by a deputation of 
colored men to issue a proclamation of emancipation. His 
reply was, that he had no such power under the Constitution!!! 
and that his proclamation would be as lawful and as poten- 
tial "as would he a hull of the Pope regulating the movements 
of a cornet!^'' Nothwithstanding his opposition, however, in 
ten days this unlawful proclamation issued, with his name 
subscribed, and four millions of slaves, absolutely incapable 
of supporting themselves, have been set loose to prey upon 
the substance of the Southern States. 

I have already given, at length, Mr. Lincoln's wise and 
humane measures of restoring the Southern States to their 
places in the Union. That policy, you see, was also promptly 
reversed by the Black Republican organization. And now, 
fellow-citizens, we see the same power vigorously and offen- 
sively exercised in the name and under the authority of 
President Johnson. 

It has been my task, my countrymen, to study the philos- 
ophy of such developments, and to warn you of their true 
political significance. It has been with no view to reflect 
on the memory of Mr. Lincoln that I have recurred to these 
incidents of our national history. I will say once for all, 
that I believe Mr. Lincoln to "have been a kind-hearted 
man — a man even of generous impulsions ; but he was no 
match for the bold and reckless spirit of abolitionism, which 
held the mastery of his councils. Nor do I take pleasure 
in exhibiting the absolute control of this party in the coun- 
cils of Mr. Johnson. 



17 

Thetr absolute possession of President Johnson — 
How HE Acts. 

He himself admits his total imbecility to resist their dic- 
tatiou. He executes their decrees, to our uj^er ruin and 
humiliation. In accordance with their plans, he has des- 
troyed the government of the white man of the Southern 
otates, and substituted the rule of military absolutism, that 
he may mould our people for a government, which will 
force the equality of the negro race upon us. This he has 
done — this he is doing every day before our eys — and all 
this he wishes us to believe he does " reluctantly ! P^ He ad- 
mits he is the instrument of that organization in all its foul 
oppression, and j^et he continues to drag our prominent and 
wealthy citizens before him, and constrains them to beg and 
pray of him to release his robber claim upon their wealth; 
and he takes that occasion to assure them (individually, and 
in private confidence,) that he is the friend of the South ! — 
that he earnestly desires to protect them ! ! — and that he 
only wants the countenance and lifting hand of the South 
to enable him to resist his abolition masters ! ! ! 

A PoliticjSiL "Confidence" GtAme. 

Now, fellow-citizens, I give but little weight to these con- 
fidential disclosures, 7nade in ]_yrivate, to our most worth}^ and 
most influential citizens. I have misgivings that President 
Johnson is fooling them, and hopes through them to fool us. 
He may be plajnng a sort of political "confidence game^'' upon 
them, and may be dallying with their fears of confi.scated 
wealth, to send them forth from his "private audience,'''' for- 
getful of actual wrong, and profoundly grateful for -promised 
benefits. I prefer to judge Mr, Johnson by his public acts, 
and not by his secret promises, disclosed to us by the lips of 
enthusiastic admirers, thus critically circumstanced. Of one 
thing we may feel assured — he plays a double game, and 
must be false to one or the other. The abolitionists have his 
works ; we only have his secret promises !I 

Our Critical Condition — The Negro not the Equal 
OF the White Man. 

Fellow-citizens : Ours is a most critical condition, I have 
closely studied the bearing of the facts to which, at such 
great length, I have drawn your attention. There is a 
3 



18 

practical moral to be deduced from tliese details, which I 
shall endeavor briefly to inculcate. Believe me, my country- 
men, the true enemy ot the South — the true enemy of our 
republican form of government — is the Black Republican 
organization of the Free States. The principle of their 
organization is inconsistent with, and at war with the free- 
dom of the white man of the South. It carries them the full 
length of accomplishing the equality of the negro with the 
white man in the Southern States!! This they know can- 
not be done except the white man of the Free States shall 
continue to hold the white man at the South in military sub- 
jection, and shall thus forcibly maintain the equality of the 
races. 

You know, and it is known and felt by white men North 
as well as South, that the negro is not the equal of the white 
man, and that when held together in one community, the 
white man will assert a practical superiority. The negro 
must be governed by some superior power, else the levity, 
the laziness — the improvidence of his nature — renders him 
non-self-sustaining, and a burden. There are nearly 500,- 
000 blacks in Eastern Virginia that must be made to work. 
They can not be allowed to become nuisances in the land. 
The laziness of the negro is not more repressive of the 
elevation of his race, than is his total improvidence and lack 
of forecast. The negro will not take care of and provide for 
the aged and the helpless among themselves. These are facts 
that we have learned in an experience of more than two 
centuries, and they are facts that at this moment press home 
upon (practically) the cares and perplexities of the Black 
Republicans who have taken this enterprise in hand. 

Who shall Regulate the Free Negro — Self-Govern- 

MENT AT THE SoUTH. 

The great issue that we of the Southern States should 
present for trial before the people of the Free States in- 
volves this question : Who shall have the control and regu- 
lation of the negroes located in our midst ? Shall they be 
governed by our laws and be subjected to rules prescribed 
by our authorities, or shall the Federal Government depart 
from its office of a common Government over all the States, 
and take charge of this local interest within the limits of the 
Southern States? These negroes are our people, to the 



19 

manor born, and, as all know, have to he governed. They are 
a peculiar people, and require peculiar laws and regulations. 
Who shall prescribe and who shall supervise and execute 
these laws and regulations, is the true and precise issue 
which should be presented for the decision of the people of 
the Free States ! ! ! 

Shall the Southern States be governed by the white men 
of the South, or shall the white race at the South, for the 
sake of the negro, be governed by the white men of the 
Free States ! ! ! In a contest of this nature, as to who shall 
govern and regulate the negro, (for he has to be governed 
by some one,) will the people of the Free States be willing 
to enslave eight millions of white men that five millions of 
blacks may be governed in accordance with the theories of 
these negro-worshipers ?* 

Abolition to be Overthrown. 

Fellow-citizens : On such issues there is no safety for the 
whites of the South, except in the total overthrow and ex- 
pulsion from political power of this whole type of opinion. 
It has already produced all this calamity of civil war. It 
alone now obstructs a return of the country to peace and 
quietude. The emancipation of our negroes has not sufficed 
these Abolitionists — they must continue their jealous care and 
authority over the black maw within the limits of the Southern 
States. This involves an authority over the whites of those 
States, and this can only be maintained by continued milita- 
ry occupancy of our soil. 

There is no evadinaj this issue, which resolves itself into 
a simple question of equal self-government among the States. 
Are the white men of Virginia to be the equals in political 
rights with the white men of New York or Massachusetts ? 
Is the State of Virginia tke political equal of any others in 
our sisterhood of self- governing republics ? There is yet a 
graver issue, resultant from a refusal to allow this equality 

*I think there would be a general and corlial acquiescence in the 
emancipation of the negro if he cauld be removed froav our midst. But to 
retain him here, and make his presence a pretext far establiihing a foreign 
jurisdiction over our people, is just to enslave the whites, without beuolit 
to the blacks of the South. If the New Englaiul Puritans wish to govern 
the blacks and educate them in the fijie arts, let them carry them to their 
own homes, where their jurisdiction is uai^^viesttoned. But if the negra 
Stays here, he is under our jurisdiction, aud we must gavern him. 



20 

of political rights to the Southern States * Is the Federal 
Government one of limited powers ? Can it, in the hands 
of a sectional majority, hold the minority States in subject 
"bondage, and control their internal and domestic policy ? 

No Paltering with that Type of Opinion. 

These are the issues which the negro worshipers of the 
Free States practically affirri-i, and there can be, I assure you, 
no paltering with that type of opinion. There is no middle 
ground. This party must either rule in the councils of the 
nation, to the destruction of the self-government of the 
States, and the change of our whole federative system, or 
they must be driven from their posts of power by the con- 
servative votes of the people of the Free States themselves. 
"We in the South, at this time, can give no practical aid in this 
struggle, which is now springing up in the Free States, and 
which will mature by the next Presidential election. We 
can, however, by the positions we assume on these issues, 
give shape and moral strength to the cause of the laws and 
the Constitution. Let us by no appearance of contented 
acquiescence under such wrong, weaken the manly sympathy 
felt for a brave people held in degrading bondage. Let us 
maintain our own self-respect and meet their oppressions and 
usurpations with the passive resistance of our most solemn 

*The nature of ovir mixed system of State and Federal Governments 
forbids the subjection of awy one State to political inferiority in the com- 
mon sisterhood of tjtates. The Federal power is not greater, nor can it 
become more enlarged, in one State than it is in each and all others, with- 
out the abandonment of the whole theory of our federative system. ■ The 
entire political equality of the States, is the basis principle on which the 
■whole fabric of our governments rests. It is this equality that secures to 
the people of each State an entire eciuality of political rights with the 
people of all the other States of the Union. 

Americans everywhere know that it was for equality of political rights 
that oar fathers fouglit in their Great Revolution ; and this political equal- 
ity is deeply indented on the very nature of every structure of their hands. 
It was as political equals that the several States joined in their Union, and 
adopted their Federal Constitution. It was as political equals that they 
each imparted the same limited powers, of which the Federal Government 
is composed. In the formation of that government, each State, in equal 
degree, disrobed itself of political rights ; and, in equal degree, each State 
retained to itself, a residuum of reserved powers, to be exercised by its own 
civil authorities, within Ma own limits, for the safety and welfare of its own 
people. This equality of political rights, is stamped upon the frame-work 
of the State Governments, and is at once the pride and safeguard of their 
citizens. 



protests. Let us assert our full rights of self-government 
within our own States, as well as our full and just equality 
of representation in the Federal councils. 

Loyalty of the Southern States. 

Let us calmly and with dignified earnestness assure our 
fellow-citizens of the Free States, that we have abandoned 
the thought of a separate confederacy, and now have no 
interest except to restore the Government of the Union, 
unchanged, as it descended upon us from our fathers. Let 
lis repel as an indignity the pretended distrust of our sin- 
cerity, which is used as a pretext for the maintainance of 
■large standing armies amongst us. Let us make the issue 
with our oppressors — not on Union or disunion, but on 
the inferiority of the negro race — the necessity of govern- 
ing and regulating his labor to his own self sustenance — 
and on the equal right of the Southern white man with the 
Northern white man to control within his own State, all 
persons, regardless of their color. In a word, let us solemn- 
ly protest that ours is a white man's government, and a 
government of white men, instituted by our fathers for the 
benefit of the white man, and for his exclusive dominance. 

The want of a Public Opinion — Wrong Counsels from ' 
Bad Counsellors. 

My countrymen, the freedom of the press has/been ruth- 
lessly struck down in the Southern States. In the presence 
of Federal bayonets, few dare to argue your true interests in 
untrameled discussion before you. We have no means of 
free communication of sentiment amongst ourselves. Coun- 
sels of subserviency and humiliation alone are allowed the 
freest and the most unrestrained publication. Your public 
opinion is now moulded by men over whose heads the threat 
of confiscated wealth is fearfully suspended. Newspapers, 
with the fear of the provost guard upon them, and the rich 
men among you, with the rope artfully noosed around their 
necks ready to drag from them their cherished wealth, are 
now your only counsellors. These are truths patent to your- 
senses — they are sad and humiliating facts, that portend no 
good to the liberties we struggle to regain. 

These counsellors, drawing from the magazine of their 
own fears, point you to contented acquiescence under your 



22 

wrongs — nay,to a stultification of yourselves. With the shaft 
of the arrow which pierced their own manhood badly con- 
cealed from your view, they advise you to humbly kiss the 
rod that smites you, and praise the hand that fells your in- 
heritance of freedom in the dust. They seek to mystify 
your manly intelligence with the Seductive argument of 
policy, policy, policy!!! Your heads, they tell you, are in 
the lion's mouth — be still — be hushed — he coaxing to the 
royal wretch, lest he shakes his tail, and crushes out your 
life ! ! ! 

My countrymen, I resist and abhor such councils — I place 
my trust in the elastic nature of the free institutions bestowed 
upon the American people by the wisdom of our fathers. 
There is a re-actionary power at the polls to which I look. 
I expect nothing from the lion whose lair is constructed 
on the wreck of our cherished forms of government. With 
ears erect and courage unsubdued, I hear the shouts of the 
distant huntsman. They come — believe me they come — and 
they come in vengeance against the men who now tread 
down American freedom. 

Why should we Lean on Pkesident Johnson?^ 

Dropping all metaphor, I now ask you what can thisi self- 
abasement to Mr. Johnson accomplish ? He tells us tUat he 
is powerless to protect us, if he ivould, and he points, us to 
this same distant day to which I look) when the power of 
this Black Republican faction shall be broken at tl^e polls. 
In that struggle at the polls, where will be found th,e patron- 
age and power of the Federal Government ? it is now 
wielded to our oppression in the name of President Johnson ; 
will not the Black Republican party continue to wield it 
until their power is thus broken at the polls ? The time we 
want his aid is now !! When the popular voice has over- 
whelmed their power, we shall not want his protection. 

No, my countrymen, it is not upon President Johnson that 
we must lean in our troubles. With the single exception 
that he resists the extreme radical wing of this anti-slavery 
organization in their purpose of negro suffrage, every other 
act of his has been at the dictation of abolitionism. There 
are moral causes at work for our redemption, to which our 
eyes and our hearts must be directed. Let us do nothing 
that will impair the strength and break the force of these 



23 

causes. When ttis Republican party are put upon trial for 
their crimes, the trial will not be before a Military Gommis- 
sion ! The American people will then have jurisdiction. 
When arraigned on the charge of treading down the State 
Governments at the South, let them not shelter from the ac- 
cusation behind the cringing and slavish praises wrung from 
the excited fears of our people. When charged with con- 
spiracy to revolutionize the whole nature of the Federal 
Government by breaking down all the limitations on its 
powers found in the Federal Constitution, and thereby ma- 
king it an unlimited central despotism, let them not justify 
their usurpations by pointing to us in contented acquiescence, 
nay, in slavish praise of their wrongs. 

It is not thus that we shall give vigor to the arm raised in 
defence and for the vindication of our American forms of 
free government. Our true position is one of resistance to 
these wrongs — passive resistance, by earnest protest and by 
manly expostulation. We should appeal not to these wil- 
ful and conscious wrong-doers, for they have the wrong de- 
sign in their hearts, and knowingly thus strike down laws 
and constitutions and republican forms of government which 
obstruct the pathway of their purposes. We should be their 
accusers, their prosecutors, for these wrongs before this 
great tribunal of the American people. Thus it is that we 
shall present an issue of the laws and the Constitution on 
which all conservative men in the Free States may rally. 

The Social Structure of Parties in the Free States — 
Substantive Weakness of the Abolition Party. 

Fellow-citizens: I have heretofore • expressed my confi- 
dence in the result of this struggle between conservatism 
and radicalism at the next Presidential election. It is a 
contest that must be met, and ought not, even if it were 
practicable, to be postponed. For myself, I have confident 
trust in the justice of our cause, and in the reactionary 
force of our free systems. I now strive to infuse this hope- 
fulness on your minds, that your courage may not be sub- 
dued. I have long and closely studied the social structure 
of parties in the Free States ; and I have narrowly watched 
the rise and progress of this political organism (the Black 
Eepublican) among their people. I assure you, that sepa- 
rated from its adjunct interests, and left to stand out squarely 



24 

upon its own principles, that organization is pittiably weak 
and imbecile. 

I could adduce many proofs of this, taken from their 
political history. Often have they taken the field for the 
Presidency, under their own flag of abolitionism. Burney, 
Yan Buren, Garrett Smith and Fremont represented aboli- 
tion principles, and each, in the trial, were found to be in 
disgraceful minorities. You must bear in mind, that it was 
not until that party disguised their principles — nay, openly 
repudiated their cheiished purposes, tliut they obtained the 
popular vote. 

Mr. Lincoln no Abolitionist. 

Mr. Lincoln came into the Presidency, not as an aboli- 
tionist. He assured the American people of this in his in- 
augural address of March, 1861. I will quote his language: 

"Apprehension seems to exist (said he) among the 
American people of the Southern States, that by the acces- 
sion of a Republican Administration, their property, and 
their peace and personal security, are to be endangered. 
There lias never been arty reasonable cause for such apprehen- 
sion. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has 
all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It 
is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who 
now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches 
when I declare, that I have no purpose, directly or indirecily, 
to interfere with the institution of slavery within the States 
where it exists. I believe 1 have no lawful right to do so, and 
I have no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and 
elected me, did so with full knowledge that I had made this 
and many similar declarations and had never recanted them. 
And more than this, they placed in the platform for my ac- 
ceptance, and as a law for themselves, and for rae, the clear 
and emphatic resolution which i now read : 

" Resolved, That the maintainauce inviolate of the rights of the States, 
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domes- 
tic institutions, according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to 
the balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of ourpolitir 
cal fabric depends, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed forc^ 
of the soil of any State, no matter on what pretext, as among the greatest 
of crimes." 

"I now reiterate these sentiments, that I may give the 
highest evidence the case is susceptible of, that the property, 
peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise 
endangered by the now incoming administration." 



25 

It was not therefore as an abolitionist that Mr. Lincoln 
was elected. Had he avowed his purpose of forceful 
emancipation, he could not have been the President. He 
would CL rtainly have shared the fate of Van Buren, Fre- 
mont & Co. Mr. Lincoln avowed himself to be an old- 
fashioned Henry Clay Whig, and as such he was elected by 
the people. In placing himself in tlie hands of the abo- 
litionists he betrayed the men who elected him. 

Even after the war commenced, on the 22d of April, 
1861, this concealment of their purposes was continued. It 
would have disbaneied their armies even than to have avowed 
the real objects they had in view. 

By order of the President, Mr. Seward gave written in- 
structions to the American Ministers at London and Paris, 
(under date of April 22d, 18H1,) from which I make the 
following extracts : 

" The condition of slavery, in the several States, you will 
explain, will remain ju-st the same, whether it (the rebellion) 
succeeds or fails; and the condition of every human being 
in them will remain subject to exactly the same laws and 
form of administration, whether the revolution shall succeed 
or whether it shall fail. Their constitutions, and laws and 
customs, and habits and institiUion^, in either case, will re- 
main the same. It is hardly necessary to add to this in- 
contestable statement, the further fact, that the new Presi- 
dent, as well as the citizens through whose suffrage he has 
come into the administration, has always repudiated all 
designs whatever and wherever imputed to him and them 
of dist^i.rhmg the system of slavery as it is existing under the 
Gunslitution and laws. The case, however, would not be 
fully presented if I omitted to say, that any such eflbrt on 
his part would be unconstitutional, and all his acts in that 
direction would be prevented by the judicial authority, 
even though they were assented to by Congress and the 
people." 

I recur to these facts of a forgotten history, to show you 
that abolition was feeble of itself in the Free States, and 
dared not avow its designs in the beginning of this war. 
Cautiously and stealthly, however, it was engrafted on the 
policy of the government as a war measure — first by the 
protection given in the camps to the fugitive slaves ; then by 
the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia ; then 

4 



26 

by enlisting the negro as a soldier ; finally, by the pro- 
clamations of emancipation, which Mr. Lincoln himself said 
were totally unconstitutional. Each step of this progression 
was masked under pretenses that concealed the ultimate de- 
sign, from which they knew the mass of their people would 
revolt. 

Second Election of Mr. Lincoln no Proof of 
Abolition Strength. 

Nor did the second election of Mr. Lincoln prove the in- 
creased strength of abolitionism among the people of the 
Free States. There were two candidates in the field — both 
war candidates. The issues in the canvass were made upon 
the mode of conductiusdf the war. McClellan would observe 
the Constitution and fight for the Union, with the white 
troops; Lincoln took " everies,'''' and fought the blacks as 
■well as the whites in his armies. The election of Lincoln, 
therefore, would save 200,000 white men from exposure to 
danger. Even under such circumstances, his majority was 
only 300,000 in an aggregate vote of 4,000,000. 

Abolition always Feeble when it Stands its own 

Hand. 

Fellow-citizens : 'i'his Abolition party has never been able 
to stand erect u})on its own principles in the Free States. It 
has always skulked and sheltered under adventitious issues. 
1 remember now but one occasion when the folly and zeal of 
their high priests and strong-minded women led them forth 
into open battle for their principles. In 1860, at the Presi- 
dential election, they took a direct vote in New York. The 
equaliiy of the negro with the white man was boldly de- 
manded. They asked of the people to change their State 
Constitution and give the negroes the same right of sufl:'rage 
enjoyed by the white men. On this issue, thus boldly ten- 
dered, the abolitionists rallied their full strength. They 
could be then counted, and I think it was found thai they 
numbered about one in fort if of the 2'>opulation !!! On the 
same day the vote for President was taken, and Lincoln car- 
ried the State! ! What, I ask, is the moral to be deduced 
from such facts? First, that the abolition faction, unaided 
by adjunct influences,. is a weak power in the Free States; 
and secondly, that Lincoln's election was due to these aux- 
iliary causes, and not to abolition. , 



27 

Majorities in Representation" no Proof of Public 

Opinion. 

But it is answered to all this, that the representation in 
Congress and in the State Legislatures of the Free States is 
almost exclusively of the abolition tyj)e. This by no means 
establishes the fact that the masses of the people are aboli- 
tionists. Nothing is easier or more common than to prei^ent 
false issues at elections. I have not space to analize the 
multiplied grounds taken to attract the voters in such times 
of trouble. Elections, however, are no test of popular senti- 
ment unless they turn on the one direct question. We may 
learn this in our own recent history. 

In the year 1860, Virginia had fifteen representatives in 
Congress. Twelve of the fifteen (including her Senators) 
were declared as open disunionists ! ! Was Virginia a dis- 
union State ? In January, 1861, a State Convention to 
amend the Constitution was called, and a direct vote of the 
people was taken on the naked issue of Union or Disunion, 
and seven-tenths of the people voted for the Union ! ! ! The 
people of Virginia sent one hundred and twenty-two Union 
and only thirty Disunion members to that convention, and 
yet the same people were at the same time represented in 
Congress by twelve Disunionists to three Union men ! ! ! It 
does not do therefore to judge of public sentiment by politi- 
cal representation. 

The argument of the strength of the Black Republican 
party, founded upon their popular representation, therefore 
is not reliable. If they were the strong party in the Free 
States they would be bold and open and avowant of their 
purposes. If their proclamations of emancipation were of 
legal force under the Constitution, they would not seek to 
give them a binding validity by compelling the South to 
swear to abide by them ! The oath prescribed by Mr. Lin- 
coln was, that we should abide by these proclamations urdil 
and unless repealed by act of Congress or by decision of the 
Supreme Court. Mr. Johnson, however, viore subservient to 
the party, forces us to swear that we will abide by them 
without conditions— so that the South shall support the 
usurpation whether thus repealed or not ! ! 

The Two Plans of Reconstruction (Lincoln and John- 
son) Contrasted. 
I have shown you what was Mr. Lincoln's plan of recon- 
structing the Union. It was simple, direct, and efficient. It 



28 

re-organized the former Union in all its departments of self- 
governing and co-equal States. That plan, as I have shown, 
was rudely rejected, and in its place what is called Mr. John- 
son's plan of reconstruction has been substituted. The two 
plans stand before the country in strong contrast. The 
first was in harmony with every principal of our system of 
republican State government — the other is destructive of 
every principle of freedom and equality amcmg the States 
and the people of the Southern States. The one flowed from 
a generous and patriotic purpose to restore the country to 
an honorable and just conciliation of the sections under the 
rule of a well-defined constitutional power. The other flows 
from the fanatical and crazy purpose of elevating the negro 
to the moral and political level of the white man. 

Mr. Johnson had these two plans of reconstruction before 
him. He was free to choose between them. Mr. Lincoln 
was killed on the 1-lth of April — his conciliatory course had 
been over-ruled onl}^ on the 12th, and no plan had then been 
agreed on. One month and a half had elapsed before Mr. 
Johnson's plan of reconstruction was matured and enunciated. 
It was nut until the 29th of May that he issued his procla- 
mation and assumed to destroy the governments then exist- 
ing in the Southern States, and to humiliate the spirit of 
their people by seizing with robber hand upon their indivi- 
dual wealth. 

Mr. Johnson's " Policy " — the Strongest kind of Abo- 
lition. 
You will see from this statement of the history, that this 
policy towards the South has been adopted by Mr. John- 
son on deliberate plan, and in co-operation with the Re- 
publican faction. If the Southern States have a self- 
government, it is clear that they will subordinate the negro 
to the laws of the Southern white man. Hence this plan 
denies self government to the Southern States, and, to hush 
the outcry which such an outrage will naturally [iroduce, they 
have depi-ived us of liberty of speech and Ireedom of the 
press. i3ut far worse than all, they drag the wealth and 
intelligence of the South to the foot-stool of power, and 
thus hold the manhood of the country in debasing and 
cringing servility. 

Can the South Trust to Mr. Johnson for Eelief ? 
Now, feilow-citizeus, with such a history before us, why 



29 

should we look to Mr. Johnson for relief or redress? Is it 
a rational liope that the Abolition party will repent of their 
wrongs and restore tons our rights of self-government ? 
Can we hope that they will abandon the negro to our 
government, or that they will leave the task of leading the 
negro from his sloth, his improvidence, his ignorance, his 
frivolity of nature, up to the walks of philosophy and states- 
manship and refinement — in a word, I ask of your common 
sense, do you believe thatthere is any probability that Henry 
Ward Beecher, Wendel Phillips, and the strong-minded 
women of the Free States, will coiisent to trust this little affair 
of elevatiufj the nature ot the negro {fff) to the clumsy cordrol of 
Sotithern ivhite men !!! 

We must Look to the Conservative People of the 

Free States. 

No, my countrymen, we must look to other quarters for 
our relief. We must awaken the great conservative senti- 
ment of the American people of the Free States to the res- 
cue of the liberties of the country. We must take issue 
with abolition, whether headed by Mr. Johnson or not. We 
must claim the equality of Virginia with the other States — 
her equality of political rights, her unquestionable right, in 
the language of Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address, " to order 
and control her oivn domestic institutions according to her own 
judgment exclusively y ^ 

I have shown you, by reference to the past struggles for 
power in the Free States that abolitionism, standing on its 
own issues of negro equality, is absolutely feeble and impo- 
tent. It is only strong when hidden from view — it works 
out its ends under other colors. It has retained its power 
for the last five years, and fought out its ends under a pi'c- 
tended necessity of restoring the Union. That disguise will 
no longer save them. T\\q Union is restored, if they luill 
only allow the Govei nm,nit to go on under the Constitution. The 
most hardened impudence cannot now asperse the people of 
the South with charges of still aiming at separation. Let us 
hold them down to the one true issue. Let us be content 
with nothing short of our full rights of self-government for 
the white men of Virginia! Believe me, we shall find no 
check for wilful wrong, no limits for insolent usurpation, in 
an abject and cringing submission. 



30 

It is the Interest of the Free Statks to Relieve the 

South. 

Mj countrymen : It is of the nature and philosophy of our 
form of government, that the people at stated intervals are 
called upon to review the acts of those in power, and to re- 
cord their judgment of approval or of reprobation. Believe 
me, that there is an inherent love of constitutional liberty 
and an abhorrence of unbridled and despotic power deeply 
graven on the hearts of the American people, whether North 
or^ South, which may be safely trusted on all questions of 
self-go vornment. Americans everywhere cherish and love, 
not only the forms of their free republican institutions, but 
they are wedded to the substance of liberty and self-govern- 
ment, of which they know those forms are the muniments 
and saf.3guards. The people of the Free States have too 
much political reach not to comprehend that our fate of to- 
day may be t'leir fate on the morrow, and that in any acci- 
dental combination of majorities, their own State jurisdic- 
tions, and their own self-government, may in like manner 
be trodden down in violence and usurpation. 
* My confidence in the overthrow of the party which now 
riots in the prostration of our self-government, is based 
upon this principle of selfishness, which is the master-spring 
of human action. I can see no material interest which the 
people of the Free States can have in continuing this oppres- 
sion of the South. It certainly will not strengthen the 
tenure of their own liberty. Nor can I see how the abso- 
lute prostration of all material prosperity at the South can, 
in any respect, magnify and invigorate the welfare of any 
class of Northern interests. On the contrary, I can clearly 
see that all the g;eat interests of the Free States are identi- 
fied with the prosperous industry of the Southern people. 
We have been their customers, and, in the nature of things, 
we must in due time again resume that profitable relation. 
We have been in past times, and we shall again be, the 
great market for their manufacturing and mechanical labors, 
whilst our vast and bulky productions have given employ- 
ment, and will again give enriching employment, to their 
commercial and their navigation interests. They, therefore, 
can find no interest, either political or material, in continu- 
ing this debasement of the Southern people, with its inevita- 
ble consequences, their impoverishment and ruin. 



31 

Union the True Issue Decided by the War— Slavery 

Was Not. 

I will close this exliibition of my views with a brief 
allusion to the stereotyped cant which is constantly im- 
pressed upon your ears from your manacled aud enslaved 
public presses. You will hear the same tuoe from our best 
citizens, who are held under like subjection, their papers 
not having been yet made out HI They tell you to accept 
gracefully the issues of the war. These issues, they tell you, 
were " the Union " " and the abolition of slavery^ 

All are agreed upon the first — Union. It was certainly 
the great issue decided by the war. The South cheerfully 
and " gracefully " accepts the result. We are all anxious 
to be reinstated with our full rights in the Union. But 
when and how was abolition made an issue in the war ? I 
have shown you that Mr. Lincoln in his inaugural, and in 
his instructions to his foreign ministers, totally denied all 
wish and all lawful power to abolish slavery in the States. 
Afterwards he did, as a war measure, issue his proclama- 
tion of emancipation, but, at the same time, he absolutely 
denied thai his proclamation had any legal force, further than 
it might be supported by military power !!! Slavery, there- 
fore, I affirm, was not one of the issues pliced in contro- 
versy. The North, it is well known, would not have fought 
upon such an issue. 

Unthoughtful indeed — superficial indeed, are the views of 
those who thus counsel you to yield "gracefully^'' to this 
assumed issue of abolition. The subject has consequences 
to which they have not looked ; it has a profundity which 
they have not explored. Viewed in a pecuniary light, vast as 
it is (not less than fifteen hundred millions of dollars), I would 
cheerfully say, let them go free — but let them go away !!!* 
It is not their emancipation that creates the difficulty ! If 
emancipation of the negroes was one of the issues — and 
we must yield "gracefully'''' in that respect also to the 
arbitrament of the sword — then must we accept all the inci- 
dents of such an issue. 

*The presence of the negro laborer does not allow of the acquisition of 
white labor in the country. The white man will not consent to compete 
with th.e negro for employment. This is the case everywhere in the Free 
States, and must be the case likewise at the South. White labor always 
combines to protect its cast from such competition. The white man will 
not work in fellowship and equality with the black man. He has always 



32 

Among those incidents, are, first, the sudilen liberation 
from bondage of more than 4,00i>,000 of human beings, 
ign'trnnt and incapable of self-support, to become paupers 
and burdens upon ttie country, unltss tkeij are placed under 
th". restraints of appropriate laws. 

K second incident of our subjection on tins issue is, that 
this vast iJood of free-negroism has to be inducted in the 
ways of enlightenment— it has to be protected from tlie vio- 
lence and frauds of the white race with wiiom they reside — ■ 
and these eminent trusts of elevating the negro race can 
not be delegated to hostile hands, but, must be held in 
jealous care in the hands of our conquerors, 

A third incident of such ati issue is, that the white race 
of the Southern States, not to be trusLed in control of this 
mass of ignorance, indolence, and improvidence, must 
" yrac fully ^'' yield up all its chiiin to self-government in 
their own States, and submit to the foreign jurisdiction of 
Freedmeu's Bureaus, Provost Marshals, and Provincial 
Satrapies of which I have spoken. 

Further yet, as a corollary incident of such an issue, 
our whole frame- work of American freedom must be jostled 
out of place, all equality of political rights must be denied 
the Southern States, and the Federal Government, from its 
limited and well-delined powers, must be bloated into a 
huge tyranny exercising imperial sway over its Southern 
provinces. 

Fellow-citizens, the subject expands under examination 
and takes dimensions too large for my finite inteiligence. 
I must here close this address already too prolix for your 
patience and too long for my narrow means of publication. 

I am a candidate for your suffrages. If I am elected, your 
just rights of self-government, and your equal representa- 

xefused to do so, and thus compels the exclusion of the black from profit- 
able employments. 

It will be found that white labor will not come or will not abide South, 
because of the presMK'e of the black man. If the negro was removed 
altogether there would be no difficulty in getting white labor to settle 
among us ; but a mixed labor of white and black on terms of equal com- 
petition is just an impracticable thing, which Mr. Beecheraud his strong- 
minded women have not duly studied. 

If these people must elevate the negro race, let them take the negro to 
their own States. Tliere, they have jurisdiction by law. They can there 
indulge their passion for negro improvement without breaking down the 
free republican government of their country. 



33 

tion in the Federal councils, will employ my earnest and 
tearless exertions.* 

My Own Individual Opinions. 

A few words now in regard to myself and my own politi- 
cal principles. I haYe all my life been conservative. I 
never was a secessionist ; I always denounced the doctrine 
as inconsistent with all federative government. In the late 
war I was a revolutionist from principle. I found the ene- 
mies of my country in possession of the Federal Govern- 
ment, and using its vast powers, in violation of its Constitu- 
tion, to overthrow the domestic institutions of the Southern 
States. I could not be deceived by false professions of their 
" love of the Union " and their " love of the fldg <f the Un'on^ 
I knew the motive power of all their hypocritical clamor 
was the forceful abolition of slavery. And I knew that this 
cherished end could only be achieved in the overthrow of 
the self-governments of the Southern States, and the total 
change of the Federal Government from one of guarded and 
defined powers, to a Government of unlimited and undefined 
powers. I thought the self-government of my State worthy 
the sacrifice of my sons, and, with my cheerful consent, they 
did battle for their State. The only blunder Virginia made, 
in my judgment, was in going into battle under the seces- 
sion flag. Had she battled for her safety (as suggested by 
H. A. Wise) under the flag of the Union, and against the 
enemies of the country, who temporarily usurpea the Fede- 
.ral powers, the result would have been a triumphant vindi- 
cation of Southern rights and of the true principles of our 
American systems. 

The great struggle of the sections is now over — no man 
at the South desires to renew it. All we now aim at is a 
restoration of our mixed form of separate and self-governing 
States under one Federal Government of powers limited and 

*From information received in Alexandria, I thought Robert Y. Conrad, 
of Winchester, had refused to become a candidate for Congress. Under 
this belief, I declared myself a candidate for Congress, at August court of 
Fauquier coixnty. I was informed afterwards, by letter from Mr. Conrad 
himself, that ho had accepted the nomination, and I immediately withdrew 
in his favor 

Mr. Conrad needs no commendation to your favor from me. I have 
known him, however, from his boyhood, and will say of him, that the 
rights, and the honor, and the interests of Virginia can not be trusted in 
better hands. 



defined by a written Constitution, It is our duty to strug- 
gle for such a Government. It is a distinct, substantive or- 
ganism, which we must forever support ; but the adminis- 
tration of that government may be another and a totally dis- 
tinct thing. It is a constitutional privilege to oppose the 
one, Avhilst it is treason to resist the other. A safety-valve 
is supplied us every fourth year, as against an administra- 
tion, which we may lawfully and peacefully revolutionize at 
the ballot-box. 

The present administration is out-and-out abolition.* 
The smoke of battles now no longer obscures the vision of 
the American people. Facts are upon us — facts that con- 
flict with their early professions. These facts are the dis- 
closures of time, and demonstrate the true motives of this 
political party. They have been harbored from the begin- 
ning, and are at this day in successful prosecution. 

Fellowcitizens : The tree is always known by its fruits. 
When the blossom falls, and in due season the fruit has 
been evolved, all questions are settled, and the fruit, wheth- 
er pear, or peach, or plum, gives name to the parent tree. 
In like manner time has now solved all that was doubtful 
or mystical in the motives of this war. The country has 

*I find in Mr. Johnson's acts nothing on which to ground a hope of relief 
for the South. On the other hand, his every act has been in direct con- 
formity with abolition purposes. He talks of State rights and State equali- 
ty, but this talk is made to our people midst the wreck of their State 
rights and State governments, crushed down by his own deliberate action. 
His plan of reconstruction looks to the manipulation of the represtsntation 
of the States, and the procuring of pliant legislatures and conventions, 
who will da the will of the Federal powers, and thus bind the real will of 
our own people. This has been the plan in Maryland, Mississippi, and 
other States, and will be also in Virginia. 

I do not desire to quarrel with Mr. Johnson, and will cheerfully sustain 
him in all he sai/s about State equality, but I cannot overlook what he does 
in destruction of Southern equality, nor can I shut my eyes to the tenden- 
cies of such acts. 

Since this note was put in type, I have seen the report of the interview 
between a committee of SoutTnern gentlemen, from nine Southern States, 
(Mr. McFarland, of Richmond, chairman, j and President Johnson. I 
should be wanting in candor if I failed to express the joy and hopes which 
the sentiments and purposes expressed by President Johnson in that inter- 
view have inspired. Mr. Johnson here stands forth to assert the true 
principles of our American system of State and Federal governments. His 
positions are in manly contrast with the brutal enunciations of Thaddeus 
Stevenr^, and assures us that in the great issues of 1864 that type of opin- 
ion will stand unaided by the powerful .arm of the Federal Government. 
Thanks, earnest, cordial, hearty thanks, are due to Mr. Johnson from the 
whole country for these manly outspoken views. 



35 

groaned for four years in its bloody travail, and tbe birth 
has corae. The color of the offspring proclaims the aboli- 
tion parentage. The logic of such a result, the argument of 
such aa event, convicts their volumes of denial, and over- 
whelms pyramids of their sophistry. An owl never came 
from the nest of the eagle, or a hawk from that of the dove, 
or is the lamb yeaneJ in the den of the wolf Neither has 
this abolition flowed from the pure springs of our Federal 
Constitution. 

Not wishing to break the thread of my reasoning, I have 
placed the argument to show my eligibility to the Senate, in an 
appendix (A) hereto. I think it is manifest that, on a just 
reading of the Constitution and of the law of June 22d, 1865, 
passed by the Virginia Legislature, to re-infranchise persons 
disfranchised by the Constitution^ that the Senate will ad- 
judge me qualified to take my seat, should I be elected. 

For the same reason (not to break the thread of my rea- 
soning) I have published herewith, as appendix B, part of 
my address to the voters of Fauquier and Eappahannock, 
my constituents when I served in the " Rebel Legislature^'' 

A. J. MARSHALL, 

'Warrenton, Virginia. 



.^.DPiPEisrxDix: j^. 



Argument to show my Eli(jihility to the Legislature. 

I was a member of the {nov) so-called) Rebel Legislature, 
and am again a candidate for election, from the 17th Sena- 
torial District, to a seat in the Virginia Senate. Am I 
eligible under the terms and by the spirit of the Constitu- 
tion ordained for the people of Virginia at Alexandria in 
1864? I claim that I am eligible, if the true spirit and de- 
sign of that instrument is consulted, and if its language be 
interpreted b/the rules which govern in all judicial exami- 
nations. 

In the construction of all written instruments, whether 
deeds, or wills, or laws, or constitutions, it is a first and ele- 
mentary principle, so to construe them as to carry into ef- 
fect the design and intention of those who framed the in- 
struments. As a corollary from this principle, where pro- 
visions of the same instrument are in conflict and cannot 
be both carried out, the provision that best conibrms with 
these manifest intentions and purposes, will be enforced. 
This is a rule of construction dictated by common sense, for 
otherwise we should set aside the purposes of the Constitu- 
tion, and enforce what was not its purpose and intention. 

There is yet a third rule of construction to guide our 
judgments in considering this question of eligibility. In 
all cases of doubt, or of conflict, involving the rights and 
privileges of the people, the judgment must be to enlarge 
and not to restrict popular rights. It is a rule laid down 
in all the books, that questionable points must be decided 
" in favortm lihertatisy 

Under the guidance of thcbC three rules of construction, 
I now come to examioe this Alexandria Constitution, to 
find whether under its provisions a member of the late (so- 
called) Rebel Legislature can be eligible to a seat in the new 
Legislature of the State. 



87 

In giving a fair oonstruction to this Alexandria Constitu- 
tion, it is not only pertinent, bat absolutely essential, to 
recur to the circumstances of its origin, in order that the 
purposes it was designed to accomplish may be fully com- 
prehended. Looking to its early history, we find that the 
whole affair was a political movement, not then designed 
for present action, but designed to be of prospective opera- 
tion. It must be borne in mind, that in the spring of 18t-)4, 
there were no counties in the State in which a majority of 
the people were loyal, except, perharps, the cities of Ports- 
mouth and Norfolk, and the county and city of Alexandria — 
all the rest of the State then stood out in open and armed 
resistance to the Federal power ; but it was then thought 
that the approaching spring campaign of 1864 would end 
the struggle in Virginia, and restore the larger part of the 
State to the Union. In this expectation it was deemed. ex- 
pedient to be ready with the frame-work of a government 
for an over-run, but still a resisting people. It was believed 
that there was a large class of our people who had remained 
reluctantly with the Confederacy, but who, under ihe pro- 
tection aftbrded by the Northern army, would openly declare 
for the Union, and would be truly loyal citizens. On the 
other hand, it was thought that there would be a second and 
probably a more numerous class in the State who would 
not lose hope of eventual success, and who would await in 
sullen discontent an opportunity of renewed resistance. 
Whilst, therefore, it would be safe to trust the powers of 
voting and of political representaticn to the first class, it 
was necessary to exclude the second class from all the rights 
of self-governmet. 

The scheme of framing a government to suit these emer- 
gencies was embarrassed with many diificulties, among 
which, not the least troublesome, was to find a sufficient 
number of men in the purlieus of these cities, who were 
qualified to lay the foundations of a good government for 
the great State of Virginia. Thus it was that the Alexaa- 
dria Convention, from the necessity of the case, was made 
up of men entirely unsophisticated and unaccused of all 
legal acquirement, and their work, as might be expected, 
turns out to be clumsy, imartistic, and contradictory in its 
provisions. They were compelled to give this new govern- 
meni a popular form, and people (numbers) have always 
been considered of the essence of a people^s government. 



38 

They were resolved to trust the government only in loyal 
hands, and there were few or none outside the cities who 
were loyal. A popular government without a people either 
to form it or to administer it was an anomaly too absurd 
even for their logical conceptions. 

In the extremity of their troubles, these political Solons 
resorted to a sort of hypothetical Constitution, adapted to a 
condition of things which might, at some future day, arise 
in the country. This handful of politicians, assuming to 
act in the name, and on behalf of the people of Virginia, 
have gravely endeavored to impose upon our people a 
Constitution which liberated all the black people in Vir- 
ginia, and which they expected would strike down the 
freedom of nearly all the whites of the State ! ! ! But in 
this expectation there has been a total disappointment. 
Events have not occurred as was expected — the war has 
ended, and the people of the State everywhere, without 
division, have accepted the result of arms, and have 
abandoned all purpose of disunion. None are disloyal to the 
United States — tlie interest of all, and the purpose of all, now 
is to support and defend the Union. 

From necessity and present expediency the people of 
Virginia now acquiesce in the rule of this Constitution, and 
design in good faith to conform to its provisions. An elec- 
tion has been ordered for the State Legislature, and I am a 
candidate for the Senate. Am I eligible under this Con- 
stitution ? The Senate, when assembled, will have the 
decision of this question ; but I wish now to show to the 
voters of the district the reasoning upon which I shall claim 
my seat, if I am elected. 

No man can read this Alexandria Constitution, without 
perceiving that its leading purpose is to admit the loyal and 
exclude the disloyal from all participation in the newly- 
erected State government. The Convention itself was com- 
posed of loyal men, and its great aim manifestly was to 
mould the future government out of loyal material. Section 
seven of the fourth article prescribes "qualifications of 
senatorsy The language used cannot be misunderstood. 
" Any person may he elected senator who at the time of election 
has attained the age of tioenty-five years, is actually a resident 
within the district, and qualified to vote for members of the 
General Assembly according to this Constitution ; but no person 
holding a lucrative office, no minister of the gospel, priest of 



39 

any religious denomination, or salaried officer of any hanhing 
corporation or company, and no attorney for the commo7iwealih, 
shall be capable of being elected a member of either Mouse of 
the General Assembly.''^ 

Here, then, the Convention has prescribed the ivhole 
qualifications as well as the whole disqualifications of a Vir- 
ginia senator. This was the peculiar function of this 
seventh section. I will remark that this article fourth of 
the Constitution is devoted to the legislative department of 
the government, and under the caption " Qualification of 
Senators.'''' This seventh section thus defines the full inten- 
tion of the Convention on this point. The language here 
used is comprehensive, complete and exhaustive, and is 
clearly designed to embrace every qualification and every 
disqualification of a member of the Senate, We must, 
therefore, consult this fourth article and this seventh section 
to learn who the convention intended to qualify or to dis- 
qualify for political representation. Surely, this is true, 
we ihust seek the intention of the Convention here, where 
its mind was on the very point, and not look for that inten- 
tion, to loose ana disjected sentences found in another part of 
the instrument, and under a heading disconnected with the 
subject matter of eligibility. We find, then, that the lan- 
guage here used to express the purposes of the Convention, 
is precise and guarded, and, as just said, is absolutely exhaustive, 
both of qualification and of disqualification. " Any j^erson " 
qualified as therein prescribed, and not disqualified as there- 
in prescribed, may be clwsen senator. Such is the clear in- 
tention of the instrument. Any additional qualification or 
disqualification found in any other part of the instrument, 
therefore, is inconsistent and contradictory, and can not be 
reconciled with this manifest purpose of the Ci.mstitution. 

Tiooking, then, to the purpose of the Convention, as de- 
fined in this section, headed " Qualification of Seyiators and 
Delegates,'''' my having been a member of the " Rebel Legis- 
latare " is not a disqualification to be elected again to the 
Senate of Virginia. Every disqualification is there specified, 
and this is not among them. I am eligible, therefore, unless 
in some other part of the instrument my disqualification is 
positively and consciously declared. 

I now propose to consider the second paragraph of 1st 
section of the 3d Article, wherein it is supposed that mem- 
bers of the late " Rebel Legislature " are prohibited from 



40 

election to the next Legislature, The supposed prohibition 
is in the following words : 

" No person shall hold any offbc'. und'ir this Constitution who 
shall not have taken and subscribed the oath aforesaid. But no 
person shall vote, or hold office under this Constitution, who has 
held office under the so-called Coy>fe.dcrate Government, or under 
any rebellious State Government, or who h is been a member of 
the so-called Confederate Congress, or a vie7nher of any State 
Legislature in r(d>eVion against the authority of the United 
States, excepting therefrom county officer s^ 

It is obvious that in this parngraph the mind of the Con- 
vention was occupied in defining who shoukl be eligible to 
"the offices'''' of the State government. It had not in its 
mind either the "suffrage'''' question or the "qualifica- 
tion of legislators. '''' In the paragraph just preceding, it had 
fully settled who should vote, and in the 7th section of 
the 4th article it settles who shall and who shall not be a 
representative. The distinct province of this paragraph 
evidently is to define who shall " Ihold office.''^ In its terms 
it forbids certain classes from holding these " offices ^ The 
words used are, " no person shall hold ' any office,^ &c., who 
has ' Jield office ' under, &c." 

Now, this prohibition does not shut out a member of the 
late Rebel Legislature from a sear in the new Legislature. 
It does forbid him to hold any " office " under the State gov- 
ernmen. But a seat in the Legislature is not " an office^ I 
was not, therefore, " an office-holder^'' nor do I now seek 
"office,'''' and I therefore do not come within the restrictions. 
" Office,'''' as defined in the dictionary, is an appointment 'by 
and under a government. The representative in the State 
Legislature, or in Congress, personates his people — he em- 
bodies their sovereignty — he does not "hold office^ 

Moreover, from the wording of this prohibition, it is ob- 
vious that the Convention itself recognized this distinction 
beitween " holding office " and the popular representation. 
In terms it prohibits all persons who held " office " under 
rebel State government, and then, in the same sentence, it 
proceeds to say, " or ivho has been a member of the Confederate 
Congress or of any rebel State Legislature.'''' To such the " o/- 
Jices'''' of the State government are closed. But certainly 
neither the letter or the spirit of the Constitution can be con- 
strued thus to restrict the choice of the people in their political 
representation. 



41 

The people, under this wording of the Constitution, clearly 
cannot elect a member of the late Rebel Senate to be sheriff 
of their coimty, because that is an "o/^ice" whicli lie is in 
terms forbidden to hohl; but thev' may elect him to the Sen- 
ate, for that is not an " o#e," but is tlieir impersonation, 
and is no where forbidden in the Constitution. 

This reasoning I hold to be conclusive; but if there be 
error in it, and the opposite be the true judgment of the de- 
signs of the Constitution, then the question will come up be- 
tween two conflicting clauses of that same instrument. If 
the Constitution, in this second paragraph of the 1st section 
of the 8d article, is construed to prohibit the election of a 
member of the Rebel Senate. In the next article, 7th sec- 
tion, devoted to that subject, and under the caption, "Qaali- 
ficalion o/S'inahrs and Dtkgates,'''' there cert liniy is- no such 
prohibition to be found, but, on the contrary, in express 
terms, it is written that ^' auy person'''' may be a representa- 
tive, except he be a minister of the gospel, a priest, a sala- 
ried officer, or an attorney for the commonwealth. The peo- 
ple are expressly prohibited to choose a representative from, 
these classes, but " an_yo?i^ " else may represent them. 

Under this construction, the two clauses would manifestly 
be in conflict — both could not be enforced, and, by every 
rule of construction, the preference must be given to that 
clause which least restricts the popular privilege. But, by 
all the rules of construing laws, their different parts must be 
made to harmonize where the language used will bear sucli 
interpretaion ; and in this case, the words, in the dictiv)nary 
signficance, and in their whole connection in the clause, ad- 
mit of such harmonious construction. We are compelled, 
therefore, so to construe these clauses as to give due force 
to both, and, whilst the one exclutles a member of the late 
Rebel Legislature from holding county or State " offices,'''' it 
does not conflict with the other, which allows such members 
to be chosen to the new Tiegislature. 

There remains now but one other obstacle to my eligibili- 
ty to the new Legislature to be examined. Tiiis 7th sec- 
tion of the 4th article, under the caption, " Qual/'/icalion of 
Senators and Delegates,''^ reads in these words : " Any person 
may be elected Senator who at the time of election has at- 
tained the age of 25 years, is actually a resident within the 
district, and qualified to vole for members of the General As- 
sembly, according to this Couatitutiou." I must be " <iuati' 

e 



Jied to vote " for members of the General Assembly then, or 
I am forbidden to be elected to the Senate. I will now ex- 
amine the Constitution to see to whom it gives this right to 
vote. 

The whole subject of suffrage is embraced in article 3d, 
~lst section, and under the caption, "Qaalification of Voters?'' 
I will here copy it in ejctenso : 

ARTICLE III. 

Qualification of Voters. 
First. '' Every white male citizen of the CommonTCealth of the age of 21 
jpars, who has been a resident of the State for one year, and of the county, 
city, or town, where hf» offers to vote, for six mouths next preceding an 
election, and who has paid all taxes assessed to him after the adoption 
o/ this Constitution under the laws of the Commonwealth, after the re-or- 
ganization of the county, city, or town where he offers to vote, shall he 
qualified to vote for members of the General \Assembly and all officers elec- 
tive by the people. Provided, hoivever, that no one shall be allowed to vote 
Vfjio, when he offers to vote, shall not thereupon take, or shall not before 
have taken, the following oath : ' I do solemnly swear Cor affirm^ that I 
will support tlie Constitution of the United States, and the laws made in 
pursuance thereof, as the supreme law of the land, anything in the Con- 
stitution or laws of the State of Virginia, or in the ordinances of the Con- 
vention which assembled at Richmond on the 13th day of February, 1861, 
to the contrary notwithstanding ; and that I will uphold and defend the 
government of Virginia as restored by the Convention which assembled at 
Wheeling on the llt'i of June, 1S61 ; and thai. I have not, since thejirst day 
of January, 1864, voluntarily given aid or assistance inany way to those in re- 
hellion against the Government of the United States for the purpose of prp- 
moting the lame.^ " 

If the Convention had stopped here, it is clear that this 
oath would have disfranchised every county in the State. 
To avoid that result, and to meet the occasion of a reviving 
loyalty among the people of the State, the Convention con- 
tinued, in the same paragraph, as follows : " But the Legis- 
lature shall have power to pass an act or acts prescribing means 
by which persons who have hef-n disfranchised by this pjovision 
shall or may be reslored to the rights of voters when in their 
opion it may be safe to do soJ^ Then follows a second para- 
graph, of the same section, which I have before copied, in 
which occurs this expression: "No person shall hold any 
office under this Constitution who shall not have taken or 
subscribed the oath aforesaid. But no person shall vote or 
hold office under this Constitution who has held office under 
the so-called Confederate Government, or under any rebel- 
lious State government, or who has been a member of the 
sorcalled Confederate Congress, or a member of any Slat-e 



43 

Leciislature iu rebellion, &c., excepting therefrom county 
officers." 

There can "be no question but that I am here disfranchised 
by the oath — and again I am disfranchised in the second 
paragraph just quoted, where it is written, " no person shall 
either vote or hold office under this Constitution ivhohas been 
a memher of a leyislature in rebellion, <f'c/' The only question, 
therefore, to be discussed, is whether the Legislature was not 
imbued with the full power to restore persons to the rights 
of voters who have been disfranchised " oy this prolusion.'^ 

The question narrows down to what is meant by " this 
provision " — does it cover all the disfrancliisements made by 
the two paragraphs of the first section ? 1 contend that 
"this provision ^^ means here "this whole section relating to 
disfranchisement, and that the intention of the Convention 
was to empower the Legislature," by act or acts, to restore to 
the rights of voters all who were therein disfranchised, when 
safe to do so. 

In searching for the intention of the Convention on this 
suffrage question, we can not doubt that " loyalty " to the 
Union was to be the standard. They prescribed the most 
enlarged suffrage ever before allowed in a Constitution. 
They gave the right to vote to " every white male citizen,''' not 
excluding the idiot, the insane, the pauper, or even the con- 
victed felon ! ! ! provided they were " loyaiy But theirstandard 
of loyalty, as prescribed in their oath, would exclude the 
whole population, fcccep^ the insane and the idiotic/ From this 
necessity the Convention v/as forced to vest the Legislature 
with power " to restore persons to the rights of voters who 
have been thus disfranchised." Otherwise, they were in- 
volved in the absurdity of forming " a people^s government " 
with the "peo/'k^^ struck out. I deem it entirely clear, that 
the Convention designed to empower the Legislature to 
meet the events of returning loyalty among our people. 
They prescribed an oath the most stringent, and one which 
excluded every one who had participated in the rebellion; 
but, foreseeing that the people might change and become 
loyal, they gave future Legislatures plenary powers " to re- 
store, by an act or acts, those disfranchised to the rights of 
Voters, luhea in iheir opinion it will be safe to do so. 

Ihere can be no doubt that the broad purpose of the Con- 
vention was to lay the foundations of a people's government, 
and to place it in thd keeping 'o£ ihoaa wko were loyul to 



the Union, and to such as they thought would be loyal. All 
have now become loyal, and all, as well members of the late 
Bebel Legislatures as private citizens, have become loyal, 
and all clearly may be alike "restored io the rights of voters'^ 
by act or acts of the Virginia Legislature. 

The Legishiture, having fu 1 authority of the Constitution 
for so doing, did, on the 22d June. 1865, pass an act, entitled 
" An Act prescribin'i means by which ■persons ivho have been 
disfraiichised by the third article of the CoTstilution viay be re- 
tared to the rights of voters. ^^ I was one of the "persons dis- 
franchised " by the third article aforesaid, and the Legisla- 
ture, in the above recited act, restored me to the right of 
voting. I am, therefore, a voter, and fully eligible to a seat 
in the Virginia Legislature. 

A. J. MAESHALL. 



j^t>:b:e:i^jdxzs. b. 



To my Fellow-citizens of Fauquier and Rajcipahannock Counties, 

I had the honor to represent you in the State Senate for 
several years during the late war. There was much of my 
representative duty discharged in secret session, of which 
you were necessarily uninformed, or certainly misinformed. 
I am conscious that my conduct and motives have been mis- 
represented before you, and I desire to be heard in explana- 
tion. 

You will remember I was before you as a candidate for 
re-election last spring. My duties detained me at my post 
in Eichmond, so that I was unable to see you in person, and 
defend the course of action I had urged upon the Legisla- 
ture. In the then condition of the country, I could not, 
without personal dishonor and public detriment, make the 
necessary explanations. Silence was a duty, and I submit- 
ted to the aspersions upon my name in the trust that your 
faith in my rectitude of purpose would be my ample protec- 
tion. The seal of secrecy is now removed, and it is my duty, 
as well as my pleasure, to explain. 

Fellow-citizens : As your representative in the public 
councils of our beloved Commonwealth, I had opportunities 
of knowing the condition of public affairs, not possessed by 
my constituents or by the country at large. It became our 
duty, as guardian representatives of our people, to look nar- 
rowly into the condition of the country, and understand its 
capacities for defence. Early in our last session we appoint- 
ed a joint committee of thirteen to make full investigation, 
and to report in full, on the public safety. I need not 
trouble you with details. We had General Lee, the Secre- 
tary of War, the heads of the various Departments, under 
examination, and even the President himself found it con- 
sistent with his duty to enlighten the "Virginia Legislature 
on so momentous an occasion. 



The conclusions of my judgment, on a deliberate scrutiny 
of all this higli testimony, frankly revealed to us, was that 
the Confederacy did not possess the physical means of resis- 
tance, and that the Southern armies must be vanquished and 
destroyed on the opening of the spring campaign. With 
this settled conviction on my mind, which was confirmed by 
the opinions of the most sagacious and thoughtful men 
around me, I thought it to be my highest duty to guard the 
people who had trusted me in the only way of safety that 
remained. I thought that continued resistance, without a 
possible hope of success, was not only vain, but wicked — it 
was murder, and no longer legitimate war. 

In this condition of things, I deemed it to be the duty of 
the Virginia Legislature to take the high responsibility of 
an action, that would compel the Confederate authorities to 
treat for peace on the basis of a reconstruction of the Union 
under the Federal Constitution. I was thoroughly satisfied 
that the choice left the South, was between a voluntary and 
a forced reconstruction ; and 1 believed it to be the part of 
patriotism and good sense, to negotiate a peace whilst Lee 
and Johnston stood at the head of unwhipped armies. I 
argued, that if we yielded the point of Union, the Federal 
administration would not hazard the chances of battle for 
lesser points, which they had never ventured to place in 
issue before their own people. I believed that neither Grant- 
or Sherman would strike another blow, if in good faith the 
South would consent to resume its duties under the Con- 
stitution. I knew, moreover, that these gallant soldiers 
would respe«t the civilization of the age, and would not, 
like the crazy enthusiasts of the Free States, seek our 
humiliation. I preferred to settle the terms of re-union 
with arms in our hands, rather than to trust their politicians 
when delivered up unarmed and defenceless to their ruth- 
less power, I thought,* 

*The insults and wrongs upon the S6uthern people, of which I complain 
in these pagtsS, have not been committed or approved by the soldiers who 
bravely staked their lives in battle to restore the Union. These brave 
men, as generous as they were brave, when they had overcome resistance 
to the laws of the Union, at ouce grasped the hand of their fallen ene- 
mies in sympathy and trustfulness. They respected a courage which liad 
tested their own inauhoud on many biittle-flelds — and they welcomed with 
mauly cordiality the restored loyaly of their recent antagonists, 'i hose 
eminent soldiers. Grant and tiheruian, in the hour of their triumph, had 
no iusults for the feeble, uo wrongs feir tlie auresistiug. In tL« siugls* 



Besides these reasons, there was everything due to the 
brave men in our armies. They were our sons and our 
brothers. They had stood in tlie trenches, and had im- 
perriled their lives in a hundred battle fields, and there they 
yet stood, unblenched with fear, to repel the invasion of our 
homes and our liberties. I thought it a wicked cruelty to 
make further sacrifice of their lives, when it had become 
manifest that further battle would be unavailing. 

It was in this condition of things, fellow citizens, that 
I took the responsibility of introducing a proposition which 
would have forced the Confederate Government to treat oq 
the basis of a reconstructed Union. I presented a system 
of measures for adoption of the Legislature, abandoning 
the purpose of Southern nationality, and consenting to a re- 
union of all the States under the Federal Constitution. I 
subjoin the resolutions in substance : 

Rpsnlved, By the General Assembly, that the people of "Virginia, trust- 
ing in the virtue, the patriotism, and the wisdom of General Robert E. 
Lee, are willing to abide by any terms of pacification between the United 
States and the Confederate States, that he may deem cou-iataut with the 
honor and safety of this Commonwealth. 

Resolved, That the two Houses of the Virginia Legislature repre- 
senting the sovereign powers of the Sta,te, do assume, in this high 
emergency, to speak the voice of the people of the State, and in the name 
of the people of the State, do authorize General Robert E. Lee to treat 
with General Grant upon the terms of a peaceful return of the State of 
Virginia to the Union under its Constitution : Provided, that three-fourths 
of the States of tlie Southern Confederacy shall concur in and sanction 
the measure ; and further provided, that the States thus concuring. shall 
retain all their sovereign powers of self-government, and all their powers 
of controlling, regulating, and moulding their own internaljawa, customs, 
and institutions, as fully and to tlie same extent as they existed under 
the Constitution of the United States in the year 186C. 

I accompanied these resolutions with an elaborate and 
earnest argument addressed to the Senate. I had not the 

ness of their purpose, they only sought to establish the rule of the laws 
and the Constitution over the Southern people. 

It has been from the councils of a: different clasB of men that our 
humiliation and wrong has come. Our oppression comes from politicians 
who have been doughty warriors at a great distance from battle-fields, 
w|iose fierce courage has not led to the perils of Minnie balls and sabre 
cuts, and who, if ihe war had lasted fifty years, would have died with no 
more 1 oles in their skins than tnose wherewith nature had provided tliem. 
Sohtiers have fought this war to vindicate the just authority of the Con- 
stitution — these politicians have perverted the fruits of tlieir valor in in- 
sult and outrage of a disarmed people, and iu overthrow of the very 
forms of 9 ur republican gpverjiment- 



strength to carry the measure ; indeed, I signally failed, not 
because I was wrong, but because ray brother senators 
would not take so high a responsibility upon themselves. 

I knew I should incur the displeasure of the country, and 
I expected to be sacrificed ; but no personal fears prevented 
me from an effort to save my countrymen from the ruin and 
humiliation that I knew awaited them, unless they were pro- 
tected from the merciless tyranny of the politician enemies, 
into whose hands I saw they must inevitably fall. 

Such was my course, and such were my motives. I wish 
to Heaven I could have succeeded. Your condition, and 
the condition of our republican governments, would have 
now been far better. I was abused and maligned through- 
out the hind, and I was abandoned by rny nearest and best 
friends; but I cared not about the sacrifice, for I knew my 
motives were pure. 

I now place before you a portion of the address I had pre- 
pared to circulate among you last spring, which is in further 
explanation of my views, and germain to the general argu- 
ment of this address. 

My vieits on the peace of the country, based on the ovcTdhrow 
of the Abolition party in the Fne States, and their expulsion 
from power, by the action of the j^eople themselves. 

Fellow-citizens : I might here end this address, and rest 
my claim to the renewal of your trust, on the earnestness 
and fidelity of my past service. But I think you are enti- 
tled to knov/ my views on all subjects on which, as your 
representative, I may have been called on to act. We are 
all Virginians, and should deal together in truth and frank- 
ness, as it is the character of our State. For myself, I would 
rather have your good opinion than your votes; and, at 
every cost, I certainly choose to maintain my own self-re- 
spect. 

The peace of my country, the safety and the honor of my 
own native State, have deeply engrossed my most anxious 
care. With such intelligence as God has endowed me, I 
have profoundly studied the philosophy of this conflict be- 
tween the people of the two sections. Most carefully, and 
on my pillow, have I scrutinized its causes and studied its 
developments. I have striven to lift myself above the pas- 
sion, and wrath, and heat of a war. Which partakes more of 



% 

tbe nature of a ferocious personal combat than of cairn na- 
tional effort ; and I have inquired for what is it that Vir- 
ginia has put forth her great energy and welcomed this vast 
ruin and disaster? I have not counselled with the passions 
of the hour, but have communed with the calm judgment of 
Virginia, expressed in time of peace, when reason and argu- 
ment could be heard. That judgment has been a lamp to 
ray footsteps, and a guide to my conclusions. 

We fight this war, fellow-citizens, in defence of our right 
to self-government. It is equally better to perish from the 
earth, than to be a people subjected to rule of strangers to 
our customs and institutions, which they cannot compre- 
hend. It was most wise in our fathers to institute a Federal 
Government that was supreme over all national interests, 
and over all interests which were common to the people of 
all the States. But there were interests of a local nature, 
speculiar to the people of each State, which were forbidden 
to this Federal power, and retained to the State governments. 
Over these domestic interests ^each State is supreme vQ^ 
•sovereign — and that State sovereignty is cherished by Vir- 
ginia as she cherishes life itself. 

This State sovereignty has a wide range of usefulness. 
Our people from their birth have known no other rule of 
conduct than that prescribed by their State government. 
Under that rule their inheritauce has been appointed to 
them. Descents and distributions, guardianships and ad- 
ministrations — all their contracts and enterprises — all their 
rights, social, civil, and religious — all personal relations, 
those of husband and wife, parent and child, master and ser- 
vant, guardian and ward — in fine, all rights of property and 
all obligations as citizens have been supervised and regula- 
ted under the authority of this eminent State sovereignty. 

Such are the wide fields of separate State jurisdiction, 
which were never surrendered by Virginia to the Federal 
Government, and can never be yielded except with the life 
of her people. These powers embrace all the emergencies 
of our social system. State governments most aptly admin- 
ister these appropriate powers, and are at once endeared to 
the citizen by their usefulness, and command his respect 
by the efficient powers they exert in protection of his civil 
and social Ireedom. 

It is a point of minor consideration with us by what gene- 
ral agency or government our foreign interests are adminis- 
7 



50 

tersd. Whether that class of interests which is common to" 
the people ol" all the States be administered by a Federal or 
a Confederate Government, is comparatively a matter of 
small concernment to our people But, when Massacliusetts 
Puritans claim a right to intrude their school of morals, and. 
l)y force, to conform our institutions to their fanatical views, 
we will resist uwto tlie death. 

It is not right or proper that I should state to you. the 
condition of affairs that, in my judgment, made it necessary 
that the Virginia Legislature should address itself to consid- 
erations ,<~)f peace. Suffice it to .«ay, that my position on the 
floor, of the Senate gave opportunity of knowledge that you 
at v(>ur homes could not p(.)ssess. I deemed it of absolute 
necessity, that peace should be restored to the land, and that 
furither bloodshed should be stopped. 

I did not hesitate U> exercise an independent judgment. 
The occasion called for the best exertions of every faculty 
with which Providence had gifted me. Your best interests, 
your property, your homes, your liberties, your eminent 
safety, were at issue, and 1 Jaxed not shrink from the respon- 
sibilities ofjny position. I have acted in sincerity, and 
earnestness, and unselfishness. 

;• My judgment was satisfied that we could command peace 
an our own terms, provided we would consent to resume 
our places in the Union under the Constitution of the 
United States. I was willing to assent to these terms, if I 
could thereby stop the war and secure for Virginia and the 
South the inestimable privileges of self-government. With 
the right to manage our own internal morals, religion, and 
interests, free from the obtrusive intermeddling of strangers, 
I was content to yield up the further pursuit of an indepen- 
dent Southern Confederacy. Our people had enjoyed peace, 
tranquility and material welfare for four score years in the 
Union, and I was willing to return to it, on the terms of 
perfect State equality, with all the sovereignty of our 
State government over our own internal interests. 

The system of measures whereby I proposed to reach 
these high purposes of peace and safety, I now submit to 
^our judgment.* 

1 have not been able to carry them in the Legislature. 

*It is not iiecesary to pul)li8h that plan as the time lias passed when it 
was of public iuterest. 



61 

They have been opposed on the ground that I err in the be- 
lief that the conservative people of the Free States greatlj 
outnumber the radical abolitionists. I believe that the 
Abolition party, proper, i? comparatively a handfull of the 
Northern population, and that if we of the South tendefa 
re-union, that wretched faction would be trodden under foot 
if they dared to obstruct the pathway of a safe and honora- 
ble adjustment. , 

Fellow-citizens : I hope to be able to see you in persbtjj, 
when I can give you the reasons for my course, which d 
manifest propriety forbids me to commit to writing. As 
yet, I have only heard of one opposing candidate for the 
Senate. Major Richard Henry Carter, of Fauquier, has 
presented his name for your suffrage. I cheerfully endorse 
his fitness for the place. Should he be your. choice, he 
possesses high qualification. I .do not, however, yield to 
him or any other man, in the zeal and singleness of purpose 
with which I aim to achieve the public good. 

These are trying times. Your representatives must not 
fear to take responsibilities upon themselves. They must 
not fear even your displeasure in the pursuit off^our safety. 
In all I have done I have aimed at your good. If it is your 
pleasure to re-elect me, I shall be much gratified. U 
another is chosen, I shall return to private life with a proud 
conscientiousness of having done my duty. 

Your fellow citizen, 

A. J. MABSHALU 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 744 640 6 



